Navigating the global energy transition to renewable and sustainable energy sources will be crucial to the long-term success of organizations. Clients across industries and sectors face significant challenges as they address and mitigate risks associated with climate change, explore opportunities to reduce emissions and fossil fuel consumption, and integrate into new energy networks.
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Geologist Dave Cook understands innovation often arises from the decision to collaborate in a new way. In classic Seattle fashion, the bold ideas that would help affordable housing developers build on brownfield properties originated over coffee.
Dave Cook is a Senior Principal Geologist based in Washington with more than 30 years of experience focused on managing complex environmental, geothermal, geohazard, and siting projects for large facilities such as data centers.
Working with public- and private-sector clients, Geosyntec provides award-winning redevelopment strategies for brownfield sites worldwide. From site identification, investigation, and remediation to design, permitting, and construction management, we provide the services necessary to redevelop an environmentally impacted property to an end use that meets environmental stewardship, regulatory compliance, and stakeholder needs. We employ appropriate and efficient geotechnical engineering and environmental remediation services to solve our clients’ brownfield redevelopment challenges. Geosyntec approaches each brownfield site individually by tailoring investigations, risk assessments, and remediation approaches to the client’s planned end use. We work with regulators, developers, and insurance providers to realize the full economic and social value of their sites and develop solutions that are amenable to all parties. We provide stakeholders with start-to-finish consistency and reassurance that the environmental elements of development are being managed by one firm because of our expertise in regulations, risk assessment, groundwater and soil remediation, soil vapor mitigation, geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, and solid waste and environmental management.
When a site involves volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in soil or groundwater, those chemicals can volatilize and migrate into nearby buildings presenting a health hazard to those inside. Not only that, but most buildings also contain other sources of volatile contaminants that are related to ongoing operations or consumer products. Because the same chemicals can be present in the subsurface, in chemicals used on-site, and in other products, investigation and mitigation can become complicated.
Geosyntec practitioners rank among the world's top professionals in providing site assessment and remediation services at a wide range of impacted sites using innovative technologies and solutions that consistently advance the state of the practice. Through our use of innovative technologies and solutions, we provide our public and private sector clients with a wide array of services to address their toughest challenges. Our contaminated site practitioners guide our clients through a specialized remediation plan, consult on regulatory strategies, and develop a comprehensive cleanup approach. We can address numerous types of media, including contaminated soils, sediments, and groundwater. Advancing the State of the Practice Geosyntec's practitioners are pioneers in site assessment and remediation. Our senior practitioners have developed and authored guidance material and courses for local, state, and national agencies and associations on remediation techniques and technologies. Working with the Interstate Technical Regulatory Council, Geosyntec practitioners taught a training course on vapor intrusion, including mitigation options for the development of vapor-impacted brownfield sites. Geosyntec practitioners also wrote the guidance document on evaluating, optimizing, or ending post-closure care at impacted sites, including brownfield sites, and developed a patented approach for sub-slab vapor migration mitigation allowing residential, commercial, and industrial development on sites impacted by vapor intrusion. Our specialists routinely collaborate with prominent national researchers from academia and government agencies to provide innovative and defensible strategies for sites with contaminated sediments. For example, we collaborated with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to remediate chlorinated solvent-contaminated marsh sediments by applying a bioreactive mat system embedded with a dehalogenating microbial consortium, a technology Geosyntec helped develop. This project and partnership earned our client recognition as a finalist for the Service to America Medal awarded by the Partnership for Public Service. Through a collaborative research project with the University of Florida, Geosyntec professionals helped develop the FLUCL software package for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. This software is used to calculate exposure point concentration statistics in risk assessment and was the first of its kind to contain algorithms for censored datasets. FLUCL has received endorsements from several United States Environmental Protection Agency regions and the California Environmental Protection Agency. Geosyntec scientists also pioneered the use of genetic molecular tools to characterize microbes in environmental media and are engaged in applied research and development with top academic institutions around the world, including the University of Toronto, Cornell University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Our clients understand environmental and occupational safety and health risk management is a vital component of maintaining overall operational excellence. Geosyntec's environmental management team builds compliance solutions, distinguishes between potential and actual environmental risks, and develops strategies to decrease energy and water utilization. Environmental and health & safety (EH&S) management system support services benefit our private and public sector clients who are committed to achieving high standards of EH&S performance and compliance. We develop documented management systems that allow our clients to identify, prioritize, and manage more efficiently the potential EH&S risks associated with their operations using a plan, do, check, act framework to ensure continuous program improvement. With a diverse portfolio of services, Geosyntec improves public and private sector clients' environmental and health and safety performance; manage risk; and reduce environmental liabilities consistent with their financial and stewardship goals. Our compliance, permitting, and auditing specialists have technical expertise across a broad range of disciplines. Accordingly, we are able to help our clients by proactively identifying compliance obligations and opportunities to improve their compliance record. Geosyntec practitioners specialize in solving complex challenges of occupational safety and industrial hygiene that affect workplace operations, staff comfort and productivity, or occupant health. Addressing such challenges involves the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of known risks and emerging hazards in the workplace. Our practitioners conduct assessments using the sound scientific principles and practices of industrial hygiene, public health, and toxicology. We provide comprehensive Process Safety Management (PSM) and Risk Management Program (RMP) services to meet our clients' needs as they relate to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) 29 CFR 1910.119 PSM Standard and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 40 CFR Part 68 RMP. The standards require the development and implementation of a system of procedures aimed at preventing accidental releases of hazardous chemicals from subject processes. All levels of an organization can benefit from our assistance in managing the daily aspects of its operations through development of environmental management systems, compliance programs and procedures, and regulatory research and applicability assessments. We accomplish this by implementing tools in a plan-do-check-act framework to ensure continuous program improvement.
The role of environmental due diligence during merger, divestiture, and acquisition (MD&A) activities has evolved significantly since the early years of conducting straightforward Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs) for the purpose of identifying potential environmental concerns. Today, transactional due diligence can encompass far beyond just the routine Phase I ESA, advancing to higher level deal optimization through evaluation of sustainable practices and environmental, social and governance (ESG) to not just mitigate, but optimize the environmental foot print of the transaction. What once may have required only a small team of environmental professionals, has now developed into a requirement to assemble a myriad of inter-disciplinary professionals; skilled not just in environmental matters, but in financial and business matters as well with an aim of seeking value creation in addition to risk mitigation. Our clients look to Geosyntec to become a strategic and sustainable business partner looking beyond just a response to regulatory requirements. We understand that our clients may be driven by varying degrees of capitalization and risk tolerance. Certain investments may be time-limited while other investments such as mergers may present a need for a longer term vision of risk mitigation. We specialize in translating environmental risk into financial terms used for sound business decisions, requiring sophisticated integration of technical, regulatory, practical, and financial drivers.
Environmental Liability Valuation (ELV) focuses on evaluating the financial relevance of environmental liabilities and opportunities by applying fundamental engineering and scientific analysis within a specific financial, legal and risk management framework. The technical analysis, consulting support and expert testimony of our practitioners provide a better understanding of cost certainty and liability valuations, potentially reducing both the size and share of cost allocations related to insurance transactions, risk transfer, financial report, and portfolio management. Building upon our renowned expertise in environmental remediation, geotechnical, water resources, and infrastructure risk engineering, Geosyntec provides public and private sector clients with defensible valuation of environmental liability to support business decisions, such as those pertaining to insurance transactions, risk transfer, financial reporting, and portfolio management. When ELV matters to the bottom line, corporate management and legal counsel seek out Geosyntec to provide technical analysis, consulting support, and expert testimony. They know that Geosyntec offers a unique set of qualifications to apply fundamental environmental engineering and scientific analyses within a financial, legal, and risk management framework inherent to key business decisions, negotiations, and disputes. This provides our clients greater cost certainty and more usable valuations. For example, Geosyntec: Focuses on complex environmental liability portfolios. We provided concurrent evaluation of environmental liabilities at more than 1,000 sites in 48 states and international locations with alleged environmental liabilities in the billions of dollars. Focuses on environmental risk management. We provided the technical basis for a greater than $30 million insurance recovery to a clients' bottom line in less than 18 months from project inception. Offers unique environmental costing tools. We have developed and employed costing techniques and models specific to the intricacies of environmental valuations. Provides expert support. Our experts have consulted and opined on approaches, magnitudes, and appropriateness of environmental costs for more than 10,000 sites worldwide, representing billions of dollars of alleged environmental liabilities.
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